Tag Archive for anti-immigrant

Continuing my look at our unspoken, unstudied history through historical images, this week’s topic is immigration. For those who are not solely descendents of either First Nations’ people or slaves, immigration is a shared legacy. And yet, our history shows our ongoing uneasiness with the Other, however that is defined at any given period in our history. Reactions were often harsh, mean-spirited, and without compassion, and defined the newest wave with the ugliest of racial, religious, and ethnic stereotypes. Sound familiar?

As Republican rhetoric against immigrants is being ramped up by their candidate clown-car—currently driven by Donald Trump—a lot of attention has been focused on Latinos as the targets of their nativist, birthright, xenophobic ire. We need to also remember that many immigrants to the U.S. are black, and not only face our foundational racism, but immigrants to the U.S. from Muslim countries in Africa face discrimination that is Islamophobic.

Black immigrants are from many parts of the world, but half are from the Caribbean alone. Jamaica is the largest source country with about 682,000 black immigrants born there, accounting for 18% of the national total. Haiti follows with 586,000 black immigrants, making up 15% of the U.S. black immigrant population.

However, much of the recent growth in the size of the black immigrant population has been fueled by African immigration. Between 2000 and 2013, the number of black African immigrants living in the U.S. rose 137%, from 574,000 to 1.4 million. Africans now make up 36% of the total foreign-born black population, up from 24% in 2000 and just 7% in 1980.

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I had intended to continue exploring unholy alliances, but a bout with flu-like symptoms for the past 48 hours has stripped me of the concentration needed. If headache, fever, and upset stomach are going to render me even more scattered than usual, I decided to leverage that into a positive. It may be a slightly…

My planned post for today went by the wayside; it’s hard to write anything remotely coherent when you’re obsessively checking hashtags on Twitter to see if your church has imploded yet. But the thought of a Tuesday without some history was unbearable [to me] too, so here’s a taste of what’s happened on this day.…

In parts 1 and 2, of this series I described the Nooksack River and how it’s three forks joined from the glaciers and water sheds surrounding the Mount Baker National Forest and wilderness area. The river that used to be prime spawning waters teemed with salmon that fed the local Indians for thousands of years. About 150…

At the beginning of February, when the earth appears frozen and lifeless, there are stirrings below the surface and above us in the sky. The light is returning; today there is nearly an hour more daylight than there was on the Winter Solstice. Mid-January through mid-February is when the Great Horned Owls begin breeding and…

Was she a bear—or something more? She was dreaming in the cave, with the cubs snuggled against her broad chest. They dreamed together while outside the wind swept snow pellets through the trees and the deer hunted desperately for short grasses by the half-frozen creek. Her dreams were of warmth and plenty, of her twins…

She’s running. And I’m with her. Twitter announcement: I'm running for president. Let's do this together. Join us: https://t.co/9KwgFlgZHA pic.twitter.com/otf2ez7t1p — Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) January 21, 2019 You need to login in order to like this post: click here